Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 346 Late Ming Scientist Wang Hui

"This is the third version of the steam engine?"

On October [-]th of the eighth year of Tianqi, Zhu Youjian's voice sounded in the military academy, and the military academy, which was originally empty, was now full of courtyards.

Originally, there were only three major institutes, but now they have been carefully expanded into more than a dozen research institutes, occupying more than half of the military academy city.

Zhu Youjian is located in the courtyard of the Industrial Department.

In an open-air square in the courtyard, a huge and clumsy machine attracted everyone's attention.

This machine is one foot high, one foot five feet long, and five feet wide.

It stands quietly on the square, and there are hundreds of doctors from the Armament Academy who are watching him, and five people including Zhu Youjian and Lu Wenzhao who came to watch the excitement.

"Your Highness, this is the third version of the steam engine improved by Dr. Wang Zheng!"

When Song Yingxing's voice sounded, Zhu Youjian looked in the direction he pointed, and saw a man who was nearly sixty years old bowing to him.

This person is Wang Zheng who improved and manufactured the third version of the steam engine, and Zhu Youjian also thought of him on the road.

Speaking of him, many people are not clear, but if a book is mentioned, many people will think of it.

"Qi Qi Tu Shuo", a book written by Wang Zheng, played an important role in the introduction of Western science and technology to Daming in the late Ming Dynasty. What Zhu Youjian remembered was that this book described a lot of scientific knowledge, including the theory of the center of the earth and the center of gravity. And its solution, seeking water volume, floating body volume, specific gravity, simple machinery and their combined use.

As for the current Wang Hui, he had already developed water power, wind power, and heavy-duty machinery during the Wanli period, and wrote "Illustrations of Newly Made Various Utensils".

Because of this, Sun Yuanhua recommended him, and Zhu Youjian got the third version of the steam engine several years in advance.

"Reward! Reward!"

Zhu Youjian took a deep breath, and then said to Lu Wenzhao and Wang Chengen:

"Shangshu, Wang Zheng, Bi Maokang, Song Yingxing, and Sun Yuanhua, please reward them as earls!"

"Count?!" Hearing this, everyone's eyes widened.

In their view, this steam engine has not done anything useful, so it is too exaggerated to confer Wang Zheng and others as earls?

"Your Highness can't..."

Hearing Zhu Youjian's words, even Bi Maokang and the others were flattered and stopped Zhu Youjian.

In their view, Zhu Youjian gave them official positions, let them concentrate on research, and provided gold and silver, which is already the greatest reward for them.

At the moment, he has only developed a steam engine, and he is going to be rewarded as an earl, which is really surprising.

Not only them, but even Wang Chengen and Lu Wenzhao dissuaded them: "Your Highness, if you develop a steam engine and reward it as an earl, it would be too much, and it will be difficult for civil and military officials to convince everyone..."

"Your Highness, this reward is indeed too heavy." Wang Zheng couldn't help but speak, after all, he had also been an official.

"Your Highness, please take it back!" Song Yingxing and Sun Yuanhua bowed to each other, but Zhu Youjian couldn't bear it.

"You have made contributions to the imperial court, and you should receive this promotion, not to mention that you haven't read the subject I wrote?"

"After the steam engine appeared, what does it represent, don't you know?"

"Of course I know, but even so, it's too far-fetched to confer the title directly. If I develop steam locomotives, steam locomotives, and overcome various problems, it will not be too late to confer the title..." Bi Maokang persuaded .

"Your Highness, please think twice..." Song Yingxing and the others started a joint remonstrance again.

"You guys... Sigh!" Zhu Youjian looked at them, suddenly speechless.

I have only heard of people being knighted and accepting it happily, but I have never heard of someone refusing to be knighted.

However, their actions also taught Zhu Youjian an honest lesson, that is, no matter how advanced the technology is, when it does not show great value in the eyes of the world, the world will not praise the inventor.

"Song Yingxing, Wang Zheng, Bi Maokang, and Sun Yuanhua were promoted to senior ministers, and the rest who participated in the steam engine project and mercury fulminate gunpowder project were promoted to ministers."

"Xie Qi Wang Longen..."

When Zhu Youjian sighed and announced the new promotion, Bi Maokang and others finally bowed to accept the award.

Senior officials are civil servants of the second rank, while Fengzheng doctors are civil servants of the fifth rank.

Although it is scattered, the salary is still distributed normally. Taking the "Officials' Dinglu" that has not yet been decided to be issued, the annual salary of senior officials is 2000 taels of silver, and that of senior officials is 500 taels of silver.

Although such a reward is a bit low compared to their contribution, they already feel flattered.

Throughout the ages, it has never been heard of anyone who has been rewarded as the second-rank and fifth-rank Sanjie just because he participated in the research and development of equipment.

They were happy, but Zhu Youjian felt a little worthless in his heart.

"It is necessary to reverse the concept of strange and obscene skills..."

Thinking about it, Zhu Youjian was about to continue asking about the power of the steam engine, but before he could speak, Bi Maokang brought Zhu Youjian another piece of good news.

"Your Highness, you may also need to commend more than [-] PhDs from military engineering, iron metallurgy, and civilian engineering..."

"What? What's the breakthrough?" Zhu Youjian subconsciously thought of the percussion gun, but it turned out that he was thinking too much.

"Returning to Your Highness, the matter is like this..." Bi Maokang explained:
"The matter started from the iron smelting department. They conquered the crucible iron making process that His Highness said."

"They use crucibles to make the melting temperature high enough to meet the requirements of the carburizing process. At the same time, they can evenly pour out the produced molten steel to cool down and produce high-quality steel."

"After streamlining and smelting according to a fixed ratio and time, more stable steel will appear."

"The first time this kind of steel appeared, doctors from various research institutes came to observe it, and the military engineering department took the lead in thinking that using steel instead of pig iron to cast cannons might improve the performance of cannons."

"So they used the mud molds in the Military Academy to build a crucible, pour molten steel into the mud mold, and get a new type of artillery after cooling."

"The Yanshan five-jin steel cannon of the same size weighs more than the iron cannon, but its firing range also exceeds the iron cannon's two miles, reaching the level of two and a half miles."

"Afterwards, the Military Engineering Department began to reduce the size of the gun body, and finally reduced the weight of the five-pound gun to seven hundred catties, and after adding some mercury fulminate to the black powder as the priming charge, the range of the five-pound gun also reached two halfway."

"After that, they successively experimented with ten-pound cannons and twenty-pound cannons. The range of the ten-pound cannon reached three miles, and the weight was reduced by [-]%. The twenty-pound cannon reached three and a half miles, and the weight was also reduced by [-]%."

Bi Maokang was in charge of the military industry, and he was naturally very happy with such achievements in the military industry, so he reported to work.

Don't think that this just reduces the weight of each gun by a few hundred catties, but you must know that the disappearance of these hundreds of catties will greatly reduce the transportation pressure of the Ming army.

What's more, cast steel cannons are also more resistant than cast iron cannons, so they can withstand new types of gunpowder, and their range will naturally increase.

Although this is only an improvement of one or two hundred steps, one or two hundred steps is enough to cause the enemy to pay more casualties.

"Equipment can be iterated, maybe it's a good deal to sell the old equipment to the various feudal clans...but it still needs to wait."

When he heard the achievements of the Military Engineering Department, Zhu Youjian subconsciously thought of this, and then shook his head.

On the current basis, Daming can directly add a certain amount of manganese to the crucible steel to obtain manganese steel with better strength and comprehensiveness.

Once you have the manganese steel, it is much simpler to use it as a broach to pull crucible steel rifle rifles.

At present, there are steam engines, manganese steel, or further search for tungsten ore to obtain tungsten steel. Even if the output of tungsten steel in Daming will be very low, if it is used for broaching and hydraulic pressure, it can be used for both civilian and military purposes. progress.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian did not directly arrange, but asked Bi Ziyan:
"Has Minke made any breakthrough?"

"Minke's power looms and textile machines have been developed. With them, only a skilled weaver is needed to supervise and use them to weave three times the textile output of previous hydraulic looms!"

Bi Maokang spoke excitedly, but Zhu Youjian was only happy for a moment, and his expression became ugly.

Steam-powered textile machines and looms are naturally better, and can release more labor.

But the problem is that Daming is not yet ready to release a large amount of labor force.

If the power loom is used rashly, it is true that the Yumajian can make more cotton cloth, but a new problem has also arisen.

What about the nearly 20 textile workers in the south field of Yumajian?
At present, the hydraulic looms used by textile workers can weave one piece of cloth a day, with an annual output of 7000 million pieces.

Cao Huachun of Nanchang wrote a handwritten letter to Zhu Youjian, which was devoted to the production and sales of weaving cloth in Nanchang, as well as market issues.

First of all, in terms of market demand, the textile factory mainly supplies the Nanchang directly, and then the Nanchang supplies the Tianxiahuangdian. The people of the Ming Dynasty are conservatively estimated to be about 5000 million people, and a complete piece of weaving cloth is used to make a set of clothes. It is possible to make three sets.

That is to say, even if the people of Ming Dynasty buy three sets of clothes per person per year, they can only consume 5000 million bolts of cloth.

In fact, [-]% of the cloth in the South Field is sold domestically, and only [-]% is shipped to the Old Port for sale to Ottoman, Persian, and European merchants.

Now that manpower is sufficient, what will happen to the emergence of power looms with three times the efficiency of looms in the past?
Even if the Huangdian monopolizes the cloth business of the entire Ming Dynasty, it still needs to abolish one-third of the weaving workers, and it will change the small-scale peasant economy of the Ming Dynasty where men farm and women weave.

Originally, the efficiency of hydraulic looms was five times that of common looms used by ordinary people in the Ming Dynasty. Once power looms were popularized, there might be millions of unemployed weavers.

Because there are enough cloths on the market, and a cloth of three hundred cash is cheap enough, if the imperial shop lowers the price in order to retain weavers, it will force everyone to follow suit.

The common people have benefited, but the millions of textile workers and the major textile factories will also be consumed in the long-term protracted war, and finally withdraw.

At that time, Zhu Youjian had to come up with a way to let millions of textile workers have a place to go, otherwise he would have to face the situation of textile workers smashing textile factories during the British Industrial Revolution in later generations.

This is the disadvantage of the large-scale dynasty, but also its advantage.

Just like why later generations don't implement large farm economy and intelligent engineering.

It's not that I don't want to, it's that I can't do it.

Once it is promoted, a large number of workers with low education can only return to their hometowns and face their own land.

"It is still necessary to open up the market as soon as possible..."

Zhu Youjian thought about it. After comparing Daming with later generations, Daming actually has two advantages.

The first is the world rules that are not so moral. In this era, no matter which country is colonizing, and is still violently dealing with the aborigines.

The reason why they deal with the aborigines so violently is because they do not have the size to eat the aborigines, nor do they have enough productivity to digest this huge market.

But here comes the problem, Daming is different!

Daming's population accounted for a quarter of the world's population, and he was not afraid of not having the body to eat the aborigines, and this increased productivity would not become a burden to Daming.

In Tianzhu, a market of nearly 3000 million people is waiting for the textile industry of Ming Dynasty. Even if they only change a set of clothes a year, that is a market of more than [-] million pieces of cloth.

Take Tianzhu, plus the Ming suzerain-vassal system, and finally take Toungoo, then the direct market of Ming Dynasty is [-] million people, and the indirect market is South Asia plus Siam, North Korea, Japan and other countries with nearly [-] million people people.

After the textile market with nearly [-] million people is captured, the annual cloth market will be between [-] million and [-] million, and the profit for each cloth will be as high as [-] cash.

In other words, it is not a problem for Daming to earn 2000 million taels of silver just for the item of cloth.

For Daming, the population is the market.

But this is not to say that in order to make money, Daming has to take care of Tianzhu and Nanyang natives with good food and drink.

If they take care of them with good food and drink, who will dig the mines of Daming?Who will build the roads?

Not to mention, if people, regardless of gender, old and weak, were taken good care of, then the Ming Dynasty would not be able to occupy the status of the main ethnic group at all.

Therefore, adult men implicated in the war must go to reform through labor, and they will be released after ten years of reform through labor.

As for their wives and children, Daming will definitely give them easy jobs to take care of them to survive.

Not only that, Zhu Youjian will also let them exchange letters. After these prisoners learn that their wives and children are doing well, they will also gain hope. They will be honest and will not foolishly follow others to riot.

This method is the art of controlling the people that Zhu Youjian has learned in Daming for so many years.

Although he disdains the art of controlling the people, it is still good for dealing with outsiders.

Whether it is weaving, worsted spinning, mining, or agriculture, the appearance of the steam engine will affect many people.

Among them, agriculture is what Zhu Youjian wants to solve.

Daming's population employment problem is very simple for him, that is, to follow the economic model of small and medium-sized farms with high-end talents.

In the huge areas of Australia and Nanyang, Sanxuanliuwei, Annan, and the Northeast, these nearly 50 billion mu of pastures can reclaim 30 billion mu of arable land, which is enough for the people of Ming Dynasty to follow this economic model.

However, to follow this model, an extremely strong military force is needed to defend Daming.

Therefore, Zhu Youjian responded directly to Bi Maokang's words:
"All those who participate in the research of these three things will be awarded the fifth-rank Fengzheng doctor."

"In addition, the iron smelting department continues to conquer manganese steel, and strives to make the military engineering department use manganese steel earlier."

"The military engineering department also conquered percussion guns, bullet primers, flash caps, rifle lathes, and grenades earlier."

"The Migrant Engineering Department continues to select topics to tackle, and other academies have also tackled the topics in hand early. If you need money, just let me know, and the imperial court will try to satisfy you if you can."

"Also..." Zhu Youjian paused, and looked at the tall steam engine in front of him:

"Tell me about this steam engine. With its power, can it realize steam locomotives and steam boats?"

"Return to Your Highness..." Hearing the steam locomotive and steam engine ship, Wang Zheng became interested, and he said to Zhu Youjian:

"Your Highness, with the current power of the third version of the steam engine, if you really want to manufacture steam locomotives and steam ships, this is not impossible. It's just that after they are built, their kinetic energy may not satisfy Your Highness."

Wang Hui glanced at Zhu Youjian tentatively, and found that Zhu Youjian's attention was on the steam engine and he didn't show any angry expression, he couldn't help but heaved a sigh of relief.

He was also a person who experienced the "torture" of Emperor Wanli, and he was really afraid of the moody character of the old Zhu family emperor. After seeing Zhu Youjian's character towards the people around him, he couldn't help feeling a little sad.

"It would be great if His Highness was born 30 years earlier, or if I was born 30 years later..."

Life is rare in ancient times, and Wang Zheng is 57 years old. It is his helplessness to meet someone in power who supports machinery at this age.

"Why don't you say it?" Zhu Youjian looked at Wang Zheng, obviously not aware of Wang Zheng's sorrow.

"Yes..." Wang Zheng regained his mood, and then continued to introduce:

"The lower official has calculated that the energy of the current third version of the steam engine can only support the construction of a locomotive with a net weight of [-] catties and a cargo load of less than [-] catties, and this version of the steam engine, in a simple deduction, needs to be consumed for every ten miles. One thousand catties of coal, three thousand catties of water, and a maximum of twenty miles per hour..."

"Twenty miles?" Zhu Youjian frowned slightly. He calculated that it was almost six kilometers per hour, and of the seven thousand catties, four thousand catties were used to load fuel, and only three thousand catties could be used. Come load.

The speed is six kilometers per hour, and ten miles consumes one thousand catties of coal and three thousand catties of water...

Adding up these few words, Zhu Youjian was suddenly at a loss for words.

Although he knew that the steam locomotive was bad when it first appeared, he didn't expect it to be this bad.

"What about the steam engine ship?" Zhu Youjian had no hope for the steam engine ship in the short term, so he put his hope on the steam engine ship.

"Your Highness is like this..." Wang Zheng responded: "Your Majesty, the strength of the chariot and boat can be expressed by the "horse" that His Highness said."

"In the deduction, the horsepower of the steam locomotive is [-], the speed is [-] miles per hour, and it consumes [-] catties of coal and [-] catties of water for ten miles..."

"A steam engine ship with one thousand materials and one hundred horses, under the sails, at a speed of thirty miles per hour, consumes seven hundred catties of coal and two thousand catties of water every ten miles..."

Wang Zheng deserves to be the person who introduced western science. Compared with other people's reports, his report made Zhu Youjian listen more clearly and clearly.

A ship with a thousand materials can carry 15 catties, and consumes [-] catties of coal and water per ten miles, which is nothing for a steam engine ship.

Even if one-third of the load is left for coal and water, and then only two hundred miles can be traveled, it is still a good impetus for sea transportation.

However, if it can be improved a little, that would be the best, so Zhu Youjian specifically asked:
"In your opinion, when will this fourth version of the steam engine be researched?"

"Returning to Your Highness, the problem of the fourth edition of the steam engine, I think it is the power and thermal efficiency of the steam engine, as well as the high pressure problem."

"If the power of the current steam engine can be increased to [-] to [-], then the steam locomotive can pull millions of catties of goods, and only need to use one-third of the load to supply the boiler. Hundreds of miles across."

Many of the words that Wang Zheng said were words that Zhu Youjian left on the subject, and he also specially made notes on these words.

Although he doesn't know how to do research, he can't hold back his "rich knowledge". In his opinion, the horsepower of the internal combustion engine on a car should be the same as that of a steam engine.

Therefore, among the many strange subjects left by him, the Ph.D.s who researched can always learn a lot of new words.

Wang Hui talked about high pressure, power, thermal efficiency, etc. Zhu Youjian couldn't solve it, but he believed that with so many people in the industrial department, someone would be able to come up with a solution.

If no one can solve it, then even with the current steam engine, Daming can be used for ocean trade and train military use.

In the worst case, he would set up a post station for ten miles, and prepare a coal water car for each post station, which is enough to run ten miles.

Even if it takes 30 catties of coal to transport three thousand catties of grain to a distance of three thousand miles, he personally recognizes it.

Although 30 catties of coal is a lot, he can still pay for this amount of money in order to completely control the Western Regions.

Thinking about it this way, Zhu Youjian felt a little regretful. I knew he would have been a science student back then...

"Your Highness..."

When Zhu Youjian regretted it, a Jinyi guard walked in from outside the courtyard, and while watching the steam engine, he whispered a report beside Zhu Youjian:
"Annan has news that Nanzhang Kingdom has surrendered and is willing to continue to pay tribute to our court. Hong Jinglue asked His Highness whether to attack Nanzhang Kingdom."

"In addition, since the beginning of September, Toungoo has been dispatching soldiers and horses to monitor the eight passes of Tengyue. It seems that he wants to see if my dynasty has recruited soldiers and horses for the eight passes."

The news came from the south, and Zhu Youjian knew Dongyu's thoughts when he heard it.

Obviously, it was Daming's complete conquest of Jiaozhi, which made them worry about the death of the rabbit and the fox, so they worried about whether Daming would attack them.

But for Dongyu, Zhu Youjian has no idea of ​​mobilizing troops for the time being. After all, it is much more difficult to fight Dongyu than to fight Annan.

As for Nanzhang's surrender, Zhu Youjian nodded slightly.

Nanzhang Mountain is high and densely forested, and there are not many plains. If you want to fight it, the Ming army has to build a road to get in.

Although there are some agricultural and mining industries, they are not worthy of Ming's sending troops.

Given its terrain, after the Ming army dispatched troops, even if they occupied it, they would have to fall into a long-term guerrilla warfare in the jungle, and the gains outweighed the losses.

It voluntarily surrendered, but saved Zhu Youjian from doing something.

"Tell Hong Chengchou that after the Jiaozhi issue is resolved, return to Kunming as soon as possible, and Nanzhang will not have to attack. Tell the king of Nanzhang to pay tribute every year..."

"Yes..." Hearing Zhu Youjian's words, Jin Yiwei bowed and retreated slowly.

Zhu Youjian watched him leave, and finally continued to focus on the steam engine.

It's just that his flickering eyes make it difficult for people to guess what he is thinking at the moment...

(End of this chapter)